Thus visit not thy own! on this blest age Oh spread thy influence, but restrain thy Rage, This fav'rite Isle, long sever'd from her reign, 125 Now look thro' Fate! behold the scene she draws! Behold, and count them, as they rise to light. 130 In homage to the Mother of the sky, A hundred sons, and ev'ry son a God: 135 Shall take through Grub-street her triumphant round; REMARKS. Ver. 126. Dove-like, she gathers] This is fulfilled in the fourth book. W. The line is a little profane. IMITATIONS. Ver. 127. 129. Now look through fate !-See all her progeny, &c.] "Nunc age, Dardaniam prolem quæ deinde sequatur Gloria, qui maneant Itala de gente nepotes, Illustres animas, nostrumque in nomen ituras, Expediam." Ver. 131. As Berecynthia, &c.] Virg. Æneid. vi. W. "Felix prole virum, qualis Berecyntia mater Virg. Æneid. vi. W. And her Parnassus glancing o'er at once, A second see, by meeker manners known, 146 Jacob, the scourge of Grammar, mark with awe, Nor less revere him, blunderbuss of Law. 150 VARIATIONS. Ver. 149 in the first Edit. it was, Woolston, the scourge of Scrip'ure, mark with awe! REMARKS. W. Ver. 138. and each a Dunce.] Never was there a happier Parody! merum sal-heightened by its allusion to one of the most magnificent passages in Virgil, Anchises shewing to Æneas his future progeny. IMITATIONS. Ver. 139. Mark first that Youth, &c.] "Ille, vides, pura juvenis qui nititur hasta, Proxima sorte tenet lucis loca”- -Virg. Æn. vi. W. Ver. 145. From the strong fate of drams if thou get free,] 66 -si qua Ver. 147. Thee shall each alehouse, etc.] Virg. Æneid. vi. W. Virg. Æneid. viii. "Te nemus Angitiæ, vitrea te Fucinus unda, Te liquidi flevere lacus." Virgil again, Ecl. x. 66 etiam lauri, etiam flevere myrice," &c. W. Lo P-p-le's brow, tremendous to the town, Horneck's fierce eye, and Roome's funereal Frown. VARIATIONS. Ver. 151. Lo P-p-le's brow, &c.] In the former Ed. Haywood, Centlivre, glories of their race, Lo Horneck's fierce, and Roome's funereal face. W. REMARKS. Ver. 149. Jacob, the scourge of Grammar, mark with awe,] “This Gentleman is son of a considerable Maltster of Romsey in Southamptonshire, and bred to the Law under a very eminent Attorney: who between his more laborious studies, has diverted himself with Poetry. He is a great admirer of Poets and their works, which has occasioned him to try his genius that way.-He has writ in prose the Lives of the Poets, Essays, and a great many Lawbooks, The Accomplish'd Conveyancer, Modern Justice," &c. GILES JACOB of himself, Lives of Poets, vol. i. He very grossly, and unprovoked, abused in that book the Author's Friend, Mr. Gay. W. Ver. 149, 150. Jacob, the scourge of Grammar, mark with awe, Nor less revere him, blunderbuss of Law.] There may seem some error in these verses, Mr. Jacob having proved our author to have a Respect for him, by this undeniable argument. "He had once a Regard for my Judgment; otherwise he would never have subscribed Two Guineas to me, for one small Book in octavo." Jacob's Letter to Dennis, printed in Dennis's remarks on the Dunciad, p. 49. Therefore I should think the appellation of Blunderbuss to Mr. Jacob, like that of Thunderbolt to Scipio, was meant in his honour. Mr. Dennis argues the same way. "My writings having made great impression on the minds of all sensible men, Mr. P. repented, and to give proof of his Repentance, subscribed to my two Volumes of select Works, and afterward to my two Volumes of Letters." Ibid. p. 80. We should hence believe, the name of Mr. Dennis hath also crept into this poem by some mistake. But from hence, gentle reader! thou mayst beware, when thou IMITATIONS. Ver. 150. Virg. Æneid. vi.- "duo fulmina belli Scipiadas, cladem Libye!" W. Lo sneering Goode, half malice and half whim, 154 Each Cygnet sweet, of Bath and Tunbridge race, Whose tuneful whistling makes the waters pass: REMARKS. givest thy money to such Authors, not to flatter thyself that thy motives are Good nature or Charity. W. Ver. 152. Horneck and Roome,] These two were virulent Partywriters, worthily coupled together, and one would think prophetically, since after the publishing of this piece the former dying, the latter succeeded him in Honour and Employment. The first was Philip Horneck, Author of a Billingsgate paper, called The High German Doctor. Edward Roome was son of an Undertaker for Funerals in Fleet-street, and writ some of the papers called Pasquin, where by malicious Inuendos he endeavoured to represent our Author guilty of malevolent practices with a great man then under the prosecution of Parliament. Of this man was made the following Epigram : "You ask why Roome diverts you with his jokes, The jest is lost unless he prints his face." Popple was the author of some vile plays and Pamphlets. He published abuses on our author in a paper called the Prompter. W. Is it surprising, shall I say, or mortifying, to see the pains and patience of our Author and his Friends who compiled these large notes, in tracing out the lives and works of such paltry and forgotten scribblers! It is like walking through the darkest alleys of the dirtiest part of St. Giles's. To pull out these Literary Cacuses, incendia vana vomentes, from their dark dungeons and deep retreats, was a truly Herculean (though not very Heroic) labour. These, in truth, were Avia pieridum loca! Ver. 153. Goode,] An ill-natured Critic, who writ a satire on our Author called, The mock Esop, and many anonymous Libels in Newspapers for hire. W. Ver. 155. Each Cygnet sweet,] Borrowed from two lines of Young's Universal Passion. S. 6. "Is there a wit who chants the reigning lass, VOL. V. Each Songster, Riddler, ev'ry nameless name, 164 Silence, ye Wolves! while Ralph to Cynthia howls, And makes Night hideous-Answer him, ye Owls! VARIATIONS. Ver. 157. Each Songster, Riddler, &c.] In the former Ed. Lo Bond and Foxtun, ev'ry nameless name. After ver. 158 in the first Edit. followed, How proud, how pale, how earnest, all appear! REMARKS. W. Ver. 157. ev'ry nameless name,] Personal satire, on objects so obscure, is unavoidably attended with the inconvenience of accompanying it with large notes and explanations, which, though tedious, are necessary; and without which it would be unintelligible. Brossette has been forced to use this method in his many notes on the Lutrin, and on the Satires of Boileau. Ver. 165. Ralph] James Ralph, a name inserted after the first editions, not known to our Author till he writ a swearing-piece called Sawney, very abusive of Dr. Swift, Mr. Gay, and himself. These lines allude to a thing of his, entitled, Night, a Poem. This low writer attended his own works with panegyrics in the Journals, and once in particular praised himself highly above Mr. Addison, in wretched remarks upon that Author's Account of English Poets, printed in a London Journal, Sept. 1728. He IMITATIONS. Ver. 166. And makes Night hideous] "Visit thus the glimpses of the moon, |
